Tag: debate

Speaker’s Corner is one of Britain’s quirkiest and most important institutions, a global icon of free speech. You can come and preach or advocate or ridicule anything you like, within the bounds of the law. And it’s a fantastic mission opportunity for the Church, although the Church has been slow to recognise this.

Muslims, on the other hand, have taken full advantage of Speaker’s Corner to do da’wah. Over the years, Muslims have become by far the biggest special interest group there, dwarfing the numbers of other groups (which are Christians, Atheists, Jews, Hebrew Israelites, Marxists, Vegans, LGBTQI activists and miscellaneous political/conspiracy theorists.) Islamic Da’ists have the biggest internet presence, with some missionaries getting more than 300k subscribers on their channels. In principle what they are doing is perfectly lawful.

However, let’s pause to consider the religion the large Da’wah team is there to defend. This is a religion whose founder ordered critics of it to be assassinated (Life of Muhammad, Guillaume trans. (p675-676), whose God’s vision of sucesss is an earthly kingdom, a caliphate, (Sura 24:55) where believers live in complete accordance with sharia law (Sura 4:59), and where the violent subjugation of non-believers is prescribed (Sura 9:29). Unlike in the Bible, where God loved us before we loved him (1 John 4:19), came into the world to save sinners (1 Timothy 1:15), Allah has no love for transgressors (Sura 5:37.) The Bible constrains Christians, like Jesus, to turn the other cheek (Matt 5:39), not repay evil for evil (Romans 12:17), not contend for the Gospel with the ‘weapons of the world’ (2 Cor 10:3). Muslims are not bound by these constraints.

“And prepare against them whatever you are able of power and of steeds of war by which you may terrify the enemy of Allah and your enemy and others besides them whom you do not know [but] whom Allah knows. And whatever you spend in the cause of Allah will be fully repaid to you, and you will not be wronged.” (Sura 8:60)

“O you who have believed, fight those adjacent to you of the disbelievers and let them find in you harshness. And know that Allah is with the righteous.” (Sura 9:23)

According to Islam, earthly success matters; and when you are unsuccessful in debate – as is the case with missionaries’ inability to answer the question ‘who is Allah praying to?’ -it is in keeping with Islamic teaching to resort to other means of asserting dominance. Muhammad after all, claimed he had been made victorious “through terror” (Bukhari 4:52:220).

Over the past few of weeks, we’ve been surrounded by crowds, every attempt at sensible discussion being brought down by chants of “clean your arse” and “drink camel piss” Or love-filled speeches like these.Three of our team have been threatened with stabbing. There are plenty more examples of these kinds of incidents; usually we brush this off, and/or report it to the police, because we have better – so much better! – things to talk about. Last Sunday, a woman on our team was punched in the arm by a Somali man leaving the Corner. Why? For challenging Islam.

The reaction of the Dawah team? No pause for reflection on the assault let alone an apology, just more mockery:

Other groups at the Corner have noticed what’s going on too; atheists have been defending us, as well one group of Muslims have had the decency to put out a video condemning the recent behaviour of their co-religionists (warning: the video is full of profanity.) We hope they make the link with the teachings of their false prophet. As Jesus said,

“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16 By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.” (Matthew 7:15-17)

We can take the heckles and the mockery. Jesus said in Matthew 5:11,”blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. ” We are undeterred in our mission to make Him known and to expose the false religion of Islam.

“And We refrain from sending the signs, only because the men of former generations treated them as false: We sent the she-camel to the Thamud to open their eyes, but they treated her wrongfully: We only send the Signs by way of terror (and warning from evil).” Sura 17:59

Can Muslim celebrate Christmas? Should they be giving presents to Christians?

“O People of the Scripture! Do not exaggerate in your religion nor utter aught concerning Allah save the truth. The Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, was only a messenger of Allah, and His word which He conveyed unto Mary, and a spirit from Him. So believe in Allah and His messengers, and say not “Three” – Cease! (it is) better for you! – Allah is only One Allah. Far is it removed from His Transcendent Majesty that He should have a son. His is all that is in the heavens and all that is in the earth. And Allah is sufficient as Defender.” Sura 4:171

While everything belongs to God and He doesn’t depend on His creation for anything , when we look at Islamic teachings we see Allah is in fact very needy. Allah needs a loan!

“Who is he that will lend God a good loan, and He will multiply it for him manifold? God grasps, and outspreads; and unto Him you shall be returned.” s2:245

“Who is he that will lend to God a good loan, and He will multiply it for him, and his shall be a generous wage?” s57:11

God has heard the saying of those who said, ‘Surely God is poor, and we are rich.’ We shall write down what they have said, and their slaying the Prophets without right, and We shall say, ‘Taste the chastisement of the burning s3:181

This is our fourth and final article in our series on Mohammed Hijab’s (MH) falsehoods and bad arguments against the Trinity used in his debate earlier this month with David Wood (DW).

If any of our readers would like to join us for an online apologetics class to discuss these topics in more depth, please do get in touch with us at [email protected]

16. You say ‘mighty God’, I say Elijah

David Wood quoted Isaiah 9:6 in defence of Jesus’ divinity:

“For to us a child is born, to us a Son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

To which MH responded (paraphrasing): “Immanuel, eh? Immanuel doesn’t mean God with us….did you know Elijah means ‘God with us’ too? MH failed to respond to the objection (‘Mighty God’), confused it with another verse (Isaiah 7:14) and got the Hebrew totally wrong. (‘Elijah’ means “YHWH is God.”) Islam Critiqued , who knows Hebrew, has made a great video on this.

17. MH: ‘There are two words in Hebrew that mean ‘Spirit’ – Ruach and rrroooooccch(?)’

There are indeed two words for ‘spirit’ in Hebrew: ‘ruach‘ and ‘nishmoth‘. Not sure about that other one. Again, Islam Critiqued is very educational here.

18. “How can you have a begotten Son? There are only three options: biology, adoption and metaphor! So if it’s not biology and it’s not adoption then it must be metaphor! So Jesus is not the Son of God!”

Only three options, biology, adoption or metaphor? How many more straw men does MH want to add to his collection? What about the one viable option he left out, incarnation? “AND THE WORD BECAME FLESH and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14, NKJV) MH understands perfectly the Christian doctrine of incarnation; he just threw it under the bus to please his audience. But did he mean to throw the Qur’an under the bus with it? Sura 66:12:

“And Mary the daughter of ‘Imran, who guarded her chastity; and We breathed into (her body) of OUR SPIRIT; and she testified to the truth of the words of her Lord and of His Revelations, and was one of the devout (servants).”

How is MH suggesting Mary got pregnant in this case? Did Allah’s Spirit make her pregnant metaphorically? Did she give birth metaphorically to a metaphorical Isa?

19. “The word 3 in the Qur’an means all of the kinds of Trinities all Christians have ever believed in!”

MH was attempting to refute David Wood’s point, that Allah misunderstands the Trinity: except the the only Trinity Christians have ever believed in is the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. If Christians don’t believe in this Trinity, they aren’t Christians. And if there are more than one Trinity, was does the Qur’an ONLY mention the ‘trinity’ of Jesus, Allah and Mary?

“O People of the Scripture, do not commit excess in your religion or say about Allah except the truth. The Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary, was but a messenger of Allah and His word which He directed to Mary and a soul [created at a command] from Him. So believe in Allah and His messengers. And do not say, “Three”; desist – it is better for you. Indeed, Allah is but one God. Exalted is He above having a son. To Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth. And sufficient is Allah as Disposer of affairs.” (Sura 4:171)

And [beware the Day] when Allah will say, “O Jesus, Son of Mary, did you say to the people, ‘Take me and my mother as deities besides Allah?'” He will say, “Exalted are You! It was not for me to say that to which I have no right. If I had said it, You would have known it. You know what is within myself, and I do not know what is within Yourself. Indeed, it is You who is Knower of the unseen. (Sura 5:116)

If there really were different ‘trinities’, you’d think Allah would mention some others apart from this one, or at least give a nod to the actual Trinity – especially as Allah (allegedly) sent down the Bible.

20. Melchizzdek was eternal! Bring him into the Trinity!

MH wonders why Melchizedek (we will be offering MH some free pronunciation lessons) is not part of the Trinity given he is an eternal being. But does the Scripture say this explicitly?

“First, the name Melchizedek means “king of righteousness”; then also, “king of Salem” means “king of peace.”3 Without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life,resembling the Son of God, he remains a priest forever.” Hebrews 7:2-3

Without father, mother, genealogy, beginning of days, end of life -does this mean eternality or just that these details were not recorded? In Genesis 14:18-20 Melchizedek appears out of nowhere to bless Abraham with bread and wine – reminiscent of the Last Supper. Even if this interpretation is wrong and Melchizedek is eternal, he is never referred to as having all the attributes of God – honour, attributes, names, deeds and seat – the way Jesus has. The point the writer of Hebrews is making isn’t that Melchizedek is God, but that He is LIKE the Son of God, who, the writer says in chapter 1:3 is “the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.” For more on Melchizedek read this article by Sam Shamoun.

21. No Rabbi has inferred the Trinity for 4000 years?

MH was not listening properly because DW read from a Jewish commentary on the shema (Deuteronomy 6:4), the go-to passage for those trying to make a case for Unitarianism in the Bible:

“Hear O Israel, YHWH elohenu, YHWH is one. These three are one.How can the three names be one? Only through the perception of faith in the vision of the Holy Spirit and the hidden eyes alone.”

The writer was Jewish presumably. Does MH really think you can’t so much as infer the Trinity from this quotation? And this is the tip of the iceberg; there was a whole Rabbinic tradition in the 1st century AD that taught plurality within the Godhead. For more on this topic, please read this article by Anthony Rogers and this article by Sam Shamoun.

Mohammed Hijab is still away. We look forward to seeing him again at Speaker’s Corner to respond to our points.

DCCI Ministries

DCCI (Defend Christ Critique Islam) Ministries seeks to preach the Gospel to Muslims using apologetics and polemics. Like the Apostle Paul, “we do not use deception, nor do we distort the Word of God” (2 Cor 4:2). Rather “we demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God.” (2 Cor 10:5). Our motivation is love for Muslims to bring them to repentance and faith in Christ for eternal life.